Emotions
Social and emotional learning was a really big aspect for me, as I was in charge of a younger classroom. So when my School Advisor told me that I would be in charge of the emotions unit, I was very excited. I thought about what I could do to introduce different emotions and appropriate ways to express them. But I really wanted to use this unit as an opportunity to introduce strategies and techniques for self regulations.
However, because I didn’t want them to feel contrived or inorganic. Thankfully there are a plethora of children’s books that deal with the subjects of a vast array of emotions and how to deal with them. These books opened up a discussion within our classroom on how to conduct ourselves when we feel sad, happy, angry or upset.
I wanted to personalize this experience as well for myself and my students. I thought about the song that I always listen to when I get upset. It was a lullaby that my grandmother used to sing for me in Korean. So at the end of the unit, I asked my students to think of a lullaby that their parents would sing them to sleep, and I sent out a letter inviting parents to come into the class and sing for us. It turned out to be an amazing experience and I was so awed by the parents’ participation. We had four different parents come in and sing for us in their native languages!
V’s mother and little brother singing us “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Cantonese
COMMUNITY & PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
My goal in having the parents come in a share the lullabies that they sang to their children was more than just about emotions and regulations. It was about connections within the family, with their classmates, and with their wider community as well.
K’s grandparents reading to her before they sing us a lullaby in Tagalog.
It was really important to me that I had a good relationship with parents as well. Parent and teacher cooperation can serve as a powerful tool to motivate and support students. Moreover, parental involvement strengthens the community through the sharing of culture.
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CORE COMPETENCIES
The Core Competencies that we visited throughout the Emotions unit were: Communication, and Personal and Social
- Singing lullabies and connecting with the parents (and grandparents!) who came into sing for us was a form of communication. Not only did Division 3 learn how to listen to their feelings and communicate them responsibly, they also related their lives to those around them in the community.
- All of the students made a connection with the characters in the books that we read together. While we discussed that feelings are a personal thing that everyone was entitled to have, we also agreed that we had a responsibility to the class to express our emotions appropriately.